An Attempt at Theft
We spent a quiet Christmas on the boat in Mazatlan's Old Harbor. Steaks and pecan pie. It was lovely. The following day I met up with a highschool friend that came in on a cruise ship. Hadn't seen her in 25+ years and she was my best friend 9th and 10th grades. It was very cool! Our families spent the morning and afternoon together until they had to go back to their ship. It was such a magical two days that something just had to happen to rain on our parade...
That night, we had our first experience of theft in Mexico; someone tried to steal our outboard motor. At 3am, Jim and I were awakened by some light squeaky and scratchy soft noises at the stern. Our bunk is directly aft so there is just fiberglass separating us from the dinghy. As it has been chilly at night, Hotspur was buttoned up pretty tight. Jim opened one of the portholes and listened; nothing. Then, we heard another faint noise, so I knocked loudly on the fiberglass 4 times to scare away any Boogiemen that might be out there. Really, I thought I must be hearing unobtrusive boat noises and that I was letting my imagination run away. When the light squeaking persisted, Jim got up with a flashlight and club and ventured on deck in his tightie-whities. There was a man in a green skiff under our dinghy.
The man said, "Amigo". He was no amigo. The man said, "Agua" as if he was there just looking for water to drink. Yeah, we know that trick. Jim began banging on the rails with his billie club and shouting, "Adios!". Because I felt like I should do something (but had no idea what) I began screaming loudly... heck, I figured I better play the damsel in distress card in case the guy wasn't alone or had a harpoon. I screamed louder and began calling "Diablo! Diablo!" (Devil! Devil!) because I couldn't remember the Spanish word for 'A-Hole' that early in the morning. Unfortunately, I probably scared everyone on this side of Mazatlan with my siren call and the would-be-thief didn't appear to crash into rocks and drown during his escape. But I'm pretty sure he wanted to paddle away much faster because of my shrieking! But my poor children may never sleep alone in their beds again!
Upon closer inspection, the bad man was after the outboard we have on the stern of our dinghy. The dinghy was pulled up out of the water and onto its davits and the man was underneath. The nuts/bolts were loose where he was trying to dislodge the motor. Had we not physically been sleeping on the other side, we would not have heard a thing and we would be minus an outboard. He was very quiet.
The little, green skiff the man used is one that is tied up at the Old Harbor dinghy dock. We don't know who it belongs to, but it was returned to the dock after the perp used it during his up-to-no-good-excursion. He didn't steal that, so at least he is conscientious at some level, is a friend of the owner of the skiff, or is the owner himself. Or maybe he just doesn't need a little, green skiff... or needs it for the next time he attempts to steal an outboard!
Our poor old doggie didn't hear a thing. She is almost totally deaf, I think, and is going blind too. From now on we will lock the outboards to the stern rails. And maybe I'll velcro a jar of rattlesnakes on the outboard each night for good measure! ;) We are very lucky... outboards are very expensive in Mexico... much more so than in the USA. We feel extremely fortunate!
